Oh, the optimism of youth. Remember when we used to stand at the gate of the new year and think “what new surprises lie in store?”, and think that those surprises would be good and delightful?
After the past two years, we didn’t even make it to midnight here at casa del Ernst.
Someone from church had a socially distanced, outdoor party, at -30. I stopped by while out walking the dog. Two other brave souls were visiting, but they left right after I got there (it was just coincidental, they assure me), leaving me there having to try and carry on the conversation by myself.
After about half an hour around the fire, I returned home, where we pretended we were from Saskatchewan and celebrated the new year at 11 o’clock with some vague hand waving, then went to bed.
Maybe that’s just getting old. But I don’t think so. Instead, I think it’s a sign of the times. New years? Just aren’t as shiny and exciting as they used to be.
Okay, sure, so Miley Cyrus’ top fell off during her New Years spectacular, but whatever. We’ve (quite literally) seen it all before.
I’ve never been one of those people to head out to Times Square to celebrate the new year with 50,000 of my closest friends. The wildest New Years on record was probably the (now defunct) party at my sisters, where I used to hang out with my then-teenage nephew and a few of his friends and kick their butts at Halo.
I’ve never been one for New Year’s resolutions either, so there’s no sense of optimism (or impending doom) as I seek to make myself better, or realize that I am far worse of as a human than I might have thought before engaging in unwise self-reflection.
Okay, sorry, sorry. The eldest is home for the holidays. I should be more upbeat. So let’s look ahead at what the next year may or may hold in store.
The end of Covid? I know, people were predicting 2021 would be the end of Covid—or at least the end of its pandemic status—but that keeps getting pushed back as some new slippery variant takes the world by storm. But there’s some new factors that should give humanity the upper hand in this battle royal between all of humanity’s combined genius, and a single celled thing that we aren’t even sure qualifies as being alive. At the end of December, U.S. regulators authorized two new anti-viral pills: Pfizer’s Paxlovid, and Merck’s Molnupiravir. They haven’t been approved for use yet in Canada, but that should happen sometime early in the new year, hopefully by Valentine’s day. That, combined with vaccinations and herd immunity and better knowledge should get us to a point where Covid is just another annual winter visitor like Santa and the flu.
Pricy meat? The latest edition of the Canadian Food Price Report forecasts that the price of food will be going up in the new year. Expect to pay between five and seven percent more for that loaf of bread/quart of milk/stick of butter.
On average, Canadians should expect to pay just under $15,000 to feed the ravening hordes (aka, teenagers).
That’s up $966 from last year. This may force consumers to choose generic products over brand name items, and more people showing up at the discount stores.
The biggest price jump will probably be beef. Last year, the price report predicted meat prices could go up as much as 6.5 percent. But by the end of 2021, the price of beef had gone up 15 percent.
Maybe we should think twice about a vegan diet. Or at least turning to vegetable protein for more meals. Just, you know, a suggestion.
An influx of urban refuges? Prices for a house in the South Peace average $289,519, the cheapest in BC. And Tumbler Ridge—with an average house price of $247,000 is amongst the cheapest in the South Peace.
With housing prices on the rise in major centres, Covid still a going concern for at least the next few months, and the aforementioned cost of food, more people have been looking at smaller, less expensive towns as a serious alternative to the big city. Now if only we had decent internet. Speaking of which…
Decent Internet? Is this the year that Tumbler Ridge finally gets decent internet? One way or another it should be. While the District has not one but two serious proposals on the table, they don’t appear to be moving forward with either. But that’s okay, because even if we don’t get Telus fibre to the doorstep, we should be getting Starlink.
According to a note on the Starlink website when I type in my address, Starlink will be “Targeting coverage in your area in 2022.”
Of course, the initial investment of $650 is steep, but $129/month for about 100 mb down/15 up, it may be worth it, especially for people who, I don’t know, need to upload a newspaper once every couple of weeks to the printer.
More cold? The word the Weather Network is using for the next few months is “tumultuous.” That’s a nice was of saying “up and down, but mostly down” weather for the last three (or four, or five) months of winter. “Across western Canada, we expect that frigid temperatures will out-duel any periods of milder weather,” they say. Don’t blame me, I’m just the messenger. But expect below normal temperatures from here to South Dakota.
Increased rentals? For the last year and a bit, there’s been a rental freeze, but that was lifted on December 31. There’s still an upper limit on how much prices can be jacked, but if you’re renting, you may get hit with a 1.5 percent jump in payments. But in moderately good news, your landlord needs to give three months notice for that big a jump.
Less for electricity? Let’s end this on some good news. B.C. Hydro asked the B.C. Utilities Commission to reduce rates by 1.4 per cent starting in April 2022. Yay! That will be followed by a two per cent increase in 2023. Boo.
How about you? Any predictions for the future? Send them to publisher@tumblerridgelines.com .
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
